Islamist Al-Shabab fighters exploded two suicide bombs in an area lined with the chief judge’s residence and Hotel Maka Al-Mukarama in Mogadishu, killing more than two dozen and destroying a building in the Somali capital’s busiest street. Heavy gunfire rang out across central Mogadishu as the battle between Somalia Security Forces and militants continues.

It was one of the heaviest blasts to have hit Mogadishu in recent times.

Major Musa Ali stated, “The militants are still fighting from inside a civilian house adjacent to the hotel with grenades and Kalashnikov rifles.”

The attack, on a popular and the busiest street, is a recognized pattern of Al Shabab assaults on high-profile targets in East Africa. The attacks come a day after US forces in Somalia stepped up air strikes against the terror group, which is fighting to dislodge a Western-backed government protected by peacekeepers. According to media reports, 29 people, mostly civilians, had died in the attack and its aftermath, and 80 people been wounded. However, police believe the death toll may rise and rise until the condition is under control.

According to reports, the Secretary-general of the National Union of Somali Journalist (NUSOJ) Mohamed Moalimuu was also inside the Maka al Mukarama hotel during the blast followed by the clash between soldiers and militants.

Al Shabab’s military spokesman, Abdiasis Abu Musab, said militants have full control of the Mogadishu Hotel and adjacent street. He said, “The government tried three times to enter the building, but we repulsed them.”

Hassan Haile, a prominent UK-based Somali political analyst, said Islamist militant group use bribes and threats to carry out their attacks. He said, “they either bribe with money or make it very clear that they know where the soldiers live, who their families are, to reach where they want to reach.”

CHALLENGE

Somalia has been tormented by lawlessness and violence since 1991, and a further layer of chaos was added in 2006 when Al Shabab came into presence. With pledged allegiance to Islamic State, this terror group is considered the deadliest jihadi group in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Islamist group Al-Shabab, which is linked to Al-Qaeda, was driven out of Mogadishu and other provinces because of the US and Somalia governments’ counter-terrorismoperation. The United States has sharply increased its air strikes against the group since President Trump took leadership. The American military command for Africa reported carrying out 50 strikes in Somalia last year. According to the former deputy director of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), Al-Shabab has increased its attacks in Mogadishu targeting politician, foreign delegates, peacekeepers, British and US citizens as the vengeance for the US airstrikes. Last year, Al Shabab terror group shot five alleged foreign spies in a public execution.

The Al-Shabab terror group, which opposes Somalia’s federal government and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), wants to impose sharia law and has carried out many deadly attacks inside Somalia and elsewhere in the region, including in neighboring Kenya. One such an example, Al-Shabab militants killed eight Kenyan law enforcement personnel.

All these recurring attacks demonstrate that eliminating Al-Shabab would be immensely challenging for counter-terrorism agencies especially with the use of violence. Hassan Haile stated accurately that the biggest reason for terror attacks in Somalia are corruption and fear. Thousands of militants have been imprisoned, hundreds of counter-terrorismpersonnel and citizens have died in the crossfire and millions of citizens fled since the past decade. Now the question is does Somalia desperately need a permanent solution for terrorism? It is understood that crushing Al-Shabab or the Islamic States would take more than bullets and bombs. The counter-terrorism agencies need accurate and infallible intelligence and evidence before these terror group strike again and with great chaos.

WHY ICOGNATIVE?

The Al-Shabab remains a lethal threat in the sub-Saharan region despite all the counter-terrorism efforts. The group predominately conducts attacks targeting the Somali government and the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). Every attack directed by Al-Shabab has been the worst one, confirming their terror strength. The only hope for Somalia citizens and thousands of victims depend on the action of Somalia government and counter-terrorism agencies. It is understood that the military cannot win this battle with bullets and explosives. In order to eliminate terror groups, precise intelligence is required to strike a deadly blow. Till now, counter-terrorismagencies relied on existing conventional intelligence gathering tools which do not guarantee accurate results, are time taking processes and do not reveal what information a terrorist possess and is trying to conceal from the investigation which could be further used to reverse-engineer and identify the masterminds, location of training camps and details of future attacks.

iCognative by Brainwave Science provides an objective, scientific technology to distinguish between terrorists and innocents by detecting the information stored in a terrorist’s brain. iCognative technology detects specific brainwave called P300 and the concealed knowledge it reveals with near-100% accuracy. It is a powerful solution to help justify cause for further investigation on leads where evidence is unavailable. This one-of-a-kind technology accomplishes this by matching crime-related information from an infallible witness-the human brain, with over 99% accuracy without any necessity of using inhumane methods or physical evidence. iCognative understands the challenge forcounter-terrorism personnel to interrogated trained terrorists in order to gain accurate information. This technology minimizes the possibility of error and innocent suffering and provides perfect time-frame and opportunity for counter-terrorism personnel to strike the deathly blow without providing any possibility of resurfacing.

In February, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, Somali President, told the BBC that his government is on course to defeat Al-Shabab militants, although recent attacks project Al-Shabab being more powerful than before. What options Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed have- bullet and bombs? iCognative is the only forensic science technology that can make Somali President’s statement true without losing any more counter-terrorism personnel and within the record-breaking time. Somalia counter-terrorism agencies desperately need to utilize iCognative technology to gain accurate intelligence with nearly perfect accuracy and use that specific information to reverse-engineer and eliminate Al-Shabab and other terrorist organizations. In this case, all the necessary crime-related information could be accessible and verified with almost perfect accuracy once a 45-minutes iCognative test is conducted by counter-terrorism personnel on the arrested terrorists or suspects. Information such as: location of Al-Shabab training camps, identification of mastermind or key leaders, details of future attacks, identification of corrupt government and law enforcementpersonnel, linked to Islamic States and Al-Qaida, how they acquire ammunition and explosives, details of terrorist financing methods, etc., would be easily available to counter-terrorism personnel to reverse engineer the whole terrorist network, disrupt financing methods, arrest the masterminds or key leaders and eliminate any associated terror group before they could plan another attack.

An assigned investigator uploads all the investigative details related to this and previous terror cases into the iCognative system protocol. The system records and analyzes the brain prints when case related known and confidential information (together called Stimuli) is flashed to the terrorist on a digital screen in the forms of pictures, phrases or words and determine with over 99% accuracy what information terrorist possess and/or trying to conceal from the investigator. Fiction? No! iCognative has a perfect track record and is already being deployed by various counter-terrorismagencies around the globe to maximize their efforts to eliminate terrorism.

Brainwave Science’siCognative is the last and best hope for Somalia government to uproot Al-Shabab and other terrorist organizations before they could harm again. iCognative not only identify the terrorists from innocents or provide accurate intelligence from the terrorist’s brain but also boost law enforcement personnel confidence necessary to protect the nation from foreign or domestic threats.